Burt Myers is making winning look easy at Bowman Gray Stadium this season.

He led all the way in last night's Whelen 100 -- securing his third victory in five starts -- but Myers said there was nothing easy about it.

"I had some oral surgery, and I haven't felt well all week long," Myers said. "And I didn't feel good before the race. After one caution I just asked the Lord to please give me the strength to hang in and get the job done. So, somebody was looking out for me."

A week earlier, Myers endured 10 double-file restarts for a victory. Last night he fended off Jonathan Brown and Lee Jeff-reys through nine restart challenges, but had to do it while not feeling his best.

He seemed a bit better afterward, having registered his 42nd career victory and extending his lead in season standings for the featured Modified Division.

Tim Brown was the fastest in qualifying for the third time this season. He recorded a lap of 13.432 seconds (67 mph) on the quarter-mile track. But he drew the 14th starting spot.

Myers, in contrast, drew the pole position.

"We didn't qualify all that good, but we drew good," Myers said. "Over here, that's an asset. People are going to say that I got lucky with the draw, but how many times have I qualified on the pole and drew a spot in the back of the field?"

"I don't think she's ever drawn for me before and I asked her if she felt lucky, and she said that her daughter gave her a lucky bracelet on the way over," Myers said. "I'm not going to argue with that."

Myers never faltered through the restarts.

Jeffreys finished second and Jonathan Brown was third.

"They made me work for it," Myers said. "Even though you're on the inside line, you've still got to work hard and do everything just right."

James Civali, a competitor in NASCAR's northeastern-based Whelen Modified Tour as well as the season leader in NAS-CAR's Whelen Southern Modified Tour, raced for the first time at Bowman Gray Stadium.

And he came away with a fourth-place finish.

Civali, a mechanic from Meriden, Conn., drives a car owned by Roger Hill, who lives in Westfield near the Stokes, Surry and Patrick (Va.) county lines.

"This track is pretty cool," Civali said. "I got accustomed to it pretty quickly. I can't believe the fans. It seems like there are a million of them.

"We are going to run the tour race here (on Aug. 7), so we wanted to run one here before that. We might come back next week. We're talking about it."

Bobby Hutchens made his first appearance of the season, and finished in an unusual crash.

Hutchens collided with Michael Clifton heading down the backstretch in the 27th lap, and Hutchens' car flipped upside down. It took crews about 20 minutes to untangle and remove the mangled cars from the track.

"Michael got his right-front wheel locked in between my left-front and the nerf bar," said Hutchens, the director of competition for Stewart-Haas Racing. "He couldn't get off me and I couldn't get away from him. It just steered itself to the right and kept going.

"I thought it was just going to come to rest upon two wheels but the momentum just carried us own down the track. I wound up on my roof…. I was just hanging there."